Star Trek - The Influence of Uhura on STEM + Notes

Uhura and her Influence:

For my portion of the group project, I chose to focus on Uhura and her influence as an African American woman on Star Trek. As someone who is a woman pursuing a stem career, representation does matter. Growing up, I did get to see a lot of female stem representation. Never as much as male stem representation, but more than I’m sure it was more than most girls ever saw in the 1960s. Uhura was truly revolutionary for this reason. She was a woman (not a stereotype) who was intelligent, strong, and independent. Before Uhura, most female scientists in films and movies fell into harmful, degrading stereotypes. This does not even touch on the racist stereotypes that were commonplace in TV and movies at the time.

In my research - I seldom found films before star trek that had female scientists. Clusters of films, but most had a sexist basis or fell into common stereotypes. These stereotypes plague even female scientists in media now:

The old maid (too dedicated to her work, unattractive)

The male woman (suggests masculine traits are superior, "one of the guys")

The naive expert (often gets herself in danger, damsel in distress)

The evil plotter (a villain who uses her colleagues for an advantage)

The daughter (someone who only has her position due to the help of a parent/mentor)

The lone heroine (Strong, independent; someone who is extremely antisocial and unwilling to work with others for success).

These stereotypes can be done well, but typically, they result in shallow, underdeveloped characters. Uhura was none of these things. I’d argue that Uhura made way for most of the notable female scientists now known on screen like Shuri (Black Panther), Dr. Sattler (Jurassic Park), and the characters of Big Hero Six.

Outside of film, Nichelle Nichols (Uhura's Actress) has actually influenced the actual future of space travel and aerospace engineering. NASA hired her to record a recruiting video. She toured the JCS center and filmed scenes for the video in Mission Control and other facilities, accompanied by Apollo 12 and Skylab 3 astronaut Alan L. Bean. NASA hoped that her stature and popularity would encourage women and minorities to apply, and indeed they did. In January 1978, when NASA announced the selection of 35 new astronauts, among them for the first time were women and minorities.

Without a doubt, Uhura has had an astronomical influence on the fictional world of STEM, but also she has had a real world effect in the world of science.

Notes:

Star Trek - The Influence on Sci-fi

Star Trek Movie

  • I was so captivated I forgot to take notes lol

    • Really liked it, def felt the cantina vibes the entire time

    • I love me some funky space time continuums 

    • Loved the Spock and Kirk, really enjoyed both of their performances

Star Trek Episodes 

  • Episode 1 - 1966 ~ The Man Trap

    • Kirk, Spock, Uhura, McCroy 

    • Hmmm shapeshifter??

    • No salt in his body

    • Flip phones influence in star trek

      • SHE IS A SHAPESHIFTER

    • Sulu in botany

    • Science IN the show like legit science

  • Star Trek Picar

    • Romulan supernova canon- he was there when it happened

      • AI gained sentience, something went wrong on mars, banned AI

        • He misses data- they had a genuine bond

      • Oh damn he's really ripping into this reporter, as he should

    • She goes to the captain picard-

      • Oh, is she Data's daughter??? Also like is there another ai even though they are meant to be destroyed

    • BRO DID THEY JUST KILL HER??? FIRST EPISODE

      • She was synthetic, the attackers were romulan 

        • And we have our plot ladies and germs 

    • The federation banned a creation of any more androids/synths

      • Hmmm Madddox may have created dajh from data

        • CREATED IN PAIRS THERE IS A BOY 

          • NO ITS ACTUALLY A GIRL on a romulan ship named Soji, she has the necklace too

          • The borg ship 

  • Star Trek: Discover

    • Oh they dislike people -> “ we come in peace “ -> WAIT IS THAT SAYING FROM STAR TREK

      • Xenoanthropology sounds so cool 

    • Scientific ship for scientific discovery 

      • May 11, 2256

      • i love astronomy, this is such a slay

    • Female captain - asian 

    • Female Number 1 - poc

    • Lieutenant (science officer) - alien 

      •  Spock like character 

    • Scarab like statue

      • Some sort of really old thing

        • Hello??????-> Klingon 

      • Oh she's is educated as a vulcan, raised by SPOCK'S FAMILY

  • Star Trek: Strange Worlds  

    • Girl wearing captain wear -> Una

      • Captain pike 

      • What happened to una she was just here 

    • Discover new worlds, this is my jam

    • We got captain pike and spoke 

      • Oooo lady number one 

    • Uhura is in this one too!!! 

    • Mmmm he got PTSD

      • Oh he saw and felt his death, that's not fun

      • Planet doesn't have any sort of advanced tech, but have a warp drive

        • Oh jk its a warp bomb 

        • Conflicts uh-oh 

          • Pre warp society 

    • OH MY GOD I AM OBSESSED WITH THESE GENETICS STUFF RN

    • The government civil war with civilians 

      • good job at achieving world peace


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